Creating bridges, one bead at a time
Linda DeNicola
My Take

There is so much need in Africa, and when I see mothers unable to feed their children it brings me to my knees.

So I decided to do something. I decided to sell jewelry for a nonprofit called Bead For Life (BFA).

When the box came in the mail, full of beautiful beaded jewelry made from recycled paper, magazine pages for the most part, I was relieved.

I had been anticipating the arrival of this package with trepidation, not sure that the jewelry would be as beautiful as it looked on the Bead for Life Internet Web site, www.beadforlife.org.

But they were beautiful - well made and polished. I scooped them up into my hands thinking about how, through these necklaces and bracelets, I am connected to the Ugandan women who made this jewelry in the small, struggling country in Africa.

Besides helping women take care of their families, I'm finally doing something that connects me to that far away continent, a land that draws me to it like the positive pull of a magnet. And I'm getting out of my head, as a friend of mine would say, turning my ideas into action.

Recently, I held a Bead for Life party. The opportunity to do something for others less fortunate than myself inspired me to invite my open-hearted and open-minded friends over to celebrate women, families and another culture.

We listened to African music and watched a video of the Ugandan women talking about how much Bead for Life has changed their lives and provided sustainable income for them and their families. We watched them going to the market where they purchase the paper, rolling the beads and hanging the jewelry on a clothesline to dry.

Many of these women are widows and refugees, some are HIV-positive and others are caring for AIDS orphans, as well as their own families.

Despite all of their problems, they were smiling, dancing and singing on the video, so happy to be empowered by the bead project.

Thousands of North Americans have responded to the plight of these women and have supported the innovative project by holding bead parties of their own. They also support the project by wearing the jewelry, as I do every day now. Suddenly, I've gone from wearing one bracelet, or a necklace, to wearing multiple pieces; one day they are in shades of red, another blue tones and another gold, green or pink.

I want people to notice what I am wearing so that I can tell them about the fundraising efforts of Bead for Life and the two Boulder, Colo., women who started the project.

According to the program's fact sheet, the average beader now makes more than $850 a year. With great ingenuity, beaders have also started small businesses, such as bead-supply businesses or vegetable stands.

In addition, more than 100 children have been tested for HIV; families have better access to testing and treatment for malaria and have received mosquito nets; beaders are building their own homes with the help of Habitat for Humanity; students are being sponsored by BFL and enrolled in schools; and many beaders, for the first time, have a savings account.

Bead for Life is only one organization working to alleviate poverty. There are others: one is Kiva, a non-government funded organization that gives people in need of money micro-loans that range from $25 to $3,000. When you give a loan, the money is eventually paid back. You then have the option of keeping it or giving another loan.

Trickle Up is another nonprofit that gives micro-loans to people living in poverty. These micro-loans help start about 10,000 businesses a year. Trickle Up has stations in Latin America, the United States, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Like Kiva, the donation is paid back so that it can be loaned out again to help another person start their own business. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

The Heifer Organization gives sustainable support to many families and villages in over 125 countries. Working to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth, the strategy they use is to give livestock to people in need. As people share their animals' offspring with others, along with knowledge, resources and skills, an expanding network of hope, dignity and self-reliance is created.

Water Partners International works to see to it that people have access to safe drinking water, a growing issue in the world. Water Partners International helps communities gain access to safe drinking water by building wells.

Another wonderful organization is called the Central Asia Institute (CAI) established by Greg Mortenson, who chronicled his mission to establish schools all over Pakistan and Afghanistan in the book, "Three Cups of Tea."

I just read it and was very impressed because it is not only the chronicle of a humanitarian project but an immensely readable adventure story.

Mortenson, who lives in Montana, is a former mountain climber whose attempt to climb the second highest mountain in the world, K2 in Pakistan, led to his discovery that there is a severe lack of schools, especially for girls, in that part of the world. He firmly believes that education makes it harder for the extremists to recruit terrorists.

He found that in order to enlist the aid of village elders, he had to be willing to take the time to share at least three cups of tea with them. So in honor of Mortenson and his humanitarian mission, I served tea (along with an African wine) to the guests at my party.

Bead for Life sent me a recipe for an African stew that was really more like a hearty soup. It called for yams, onion, garlic, peppers and tomatoes, pineapple and peanut butter as well as cumin, cayenne pepper, coriander, cilantro and lime juice.

It was absolutely delicious, almost as satisfying as the feeling I get when I think about all of the money I'm going to send to the women in Uganda. I don't want to send any unsold beads back.

It is the least I can do!

Linda DeNicola is a staff writer with Greater Media Newspapers.